Clinical evaluation of MRI in the diagnosis of borderline ovarian tumors

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical potential of contrast-enhanced MRI with Gd-DTPA (gadopentetate dimeglumine) in the diagnosis of borderline ovarian tumors. METHODS: Thirteen patients with 14 borderline ovarian tumors were evaluated with serum levels of four tumor markers (CA125, CA19-9, SLX and CEA) and contrast-enhanced MRI. RESULTS: Among the 13 patients, five had normal serum levels of all four tumor markers, and five had high serum levels of plural tumor markers. The positive rates of CA125, CA19-9, SLX, and CEA were 46.2% (6/13), 38.5% (5/13), 30.8% (4/13), and 7.7% (1/13), respectively. With contrast-enhanced MRI, all 13 patients were diagnosed as having malignant tumors using the widely accepted criteria of MRI findings for the diagnosis of malignant ovarian tumors. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, all 14 borderline tumors had similar MRI findings to those of malignant tumors and were diagnosed as ovarian cancers with contrast-enhanced MRI, unrelated to the serum levels of tumor markers.